Poll

Today's Opinions

You know what’s best for your family when it comes to health care, and it is crucial that any health care reform proposal ensures high-quality health care, protects your ability to make choices, and gives you affordable options.

I want to express my sincere appreciation to the citizens of District 2 for giving me the opportunity to continue to represent you in Bedford County government. I am very committed to representing your positions and want you to feel free to discuss any topic with me at any time. All my contact information remains the same: telephone 297-9321; address 230 Lee Drive, Huddleston, 24104; or e-mail neudorfer@b2xonline.com. I have quarterly town meetings at the Moneta Library and one is coming up on Nov.14. I will be at the library from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

At the National D-Day Memorial, General of the Army George C. Marshall, VMI graduate, Roosevelt’s Army Chief of Staff and “the true organizer of victory” in Churchill’s words, is honored with a plaque in the Gray Plaza along with plaques memorializing the commanders of U.S. V and VII Corps.

At the National D-Day Memorial, Joseph Stalin, Hitler’s early ally, who, with Hitler, invaded and dismembered Poland in 1939 thus becoming with Hitler the co-architect of WWII, is to be given a prominently located sculpture, a bust.

For a while on Election night, it looked as though Lynchburg Delegate Shannon Valentine, a Democrat, had survived the slings and arrows of a very negative campaign aimed at her by Republican Scott Garrett.

With only one precinct still not reporting, Valentine had 53 percent of the ballots cast, roughly a 1,400 vote lead. But it was not to be, because the one precinct that was out was Heritage Elementary School, where Liberty University students had been shipped out in buses to vote.

City of Bedford School Board member Mickey VanDerwerker asked the most relevant question during last Thursday’s Bedford County School Board meeting to discuss a long-range facilities plan for the school system: “What are we going to do about the gymnasium at Bedford Primary now?”

But instead of answers, there are still only questions. And the sad news is the students at Bedford Primary are the ones suffering. It’s time for the county and school board to stop putting a decision off and to take steps to solve this problem.

The president of the United States, Barak Obama, is a tyrant. There, I said it. Before you go on about what a hysterical overstatement that is, or that I am some kind of overzealous, right wing bigot, let’s look at some recent moves by the White House.

Last week, a new version of health care reform legislation was unveiled in the U.S. House. I was pleased to see major changes in the bill that move us in the right direction. Though I was unsatisfied with the original bill, I’ve been working hard for reforms that I can support, because doing nothing would mean that premiums would double over the next decade for the middle class and small business owners. I argued that we could reduce skyrocketing premiums, bring the uninsured into the system, and reduce the federal deficit through an emphasis on prevention and increasing competition.

During the Presidential election campaign then Senator Obama called for transparency in the legislative process, even promising that health care reform negotiations would be “televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.”